Ben Johnson plays it safe filling the Bears OC role, and one crucial piece of the offense immediately benefits from the move
The Chicago Bears promoted from within to fill the vacant offensive coordinator role.
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has made quick work of replacing his two departing assistant coaches and the decision can help keep some synergy going into his second season.
At running backs coach, Johnson replaced Eric Bieniemy with Eric Studesville, another veteran coach with a long history of success at the position and the upside with Studesville is that he has a better chance of staying in Chicago for years to come.
At offensive coordinator, Johnson considered a few outside names to replace Declan Doyle but is instead going the internal route after promoting passing game coordinator Press Taylor back into the offensive coordinator role.
Bears promote Press Taylor to offensive coordinator under Ben Johnson
This will be Taylor’s second stint as an offensive coordinator after previously holding the title from 2022-2024 with the Jacksonville Jaguars under head coach Doug Pederson. It was mixed results looking at those three years working with Jacksonville’s offense.
In 2022, Taylor split play-calling duties with the offense finishing 10th in scoring and total yards. After the season, Pederson handed Taylor the reigns to be the full-time play-caller with the offense finishing 13th and 26th the following two seasons in scoring.
Fortunately, in Chicago, Taylor won’t be in charge of calling plays on offense and instead will take over Doyle’s role which included making second-half adjustments and helping take some work of Johnson’s plate throughout the week. After seeing Doyle’s rapid rise, this could be a big opportunity for Taylor to reestablish himself in hopes of landing a play-calling role next cycle.
Bears passing game will be a major emphasis going into the 2026 season
During the first season under Johnson, it’s clear the team’s new head coach wanted to showcase a physical offense built on the run game and he succeeded in that. Chicago ranked third in rushing yards per game (144.5) and ran with a punishing style of play that lasted for all 60 minutes.
It’s a similar approach Johnson had during his first year as the offensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions. His second season, the passing game took off with Detroit ranking second in passing yards per game while still being a Top-5 rushing offense in yards per game. By the third season, quarterback Jared Goff had the best season of his career in this offense.
After creating success on the ground last season, the Bears attention can now turn toward improving the passing game this offseason with all 11 starters set to return on offense. Promoting the passing game coordinator up to offensive coordinator further signals that being the plan.
“It’s not some major thing, so we’re expecting it to take off,” Taylor said of the passing game in December. “But it’s got to happen. We can’t just keep saying we’re close. We’ve got to do this. Because at some point in time, this pass game is going to have to win a game for us.”
During his first two years with Taylor as his OC, Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence completed 65+ percent of his passes in each season with a 46-22 TD-INT ratio that included his first Pro Bowl selection in 2022. Jacksonville also had a Top-10 passing offense in yards per game in each of those two years. The staff’s downfall in 2023 mainly came from Lawrence missing seven games due to injury.
Promoting Taylor isn’t the sexiest move the Bears could have made, but it’s the safe call for where this offense is headed and he can help get the most out of QB Caleb Williams.
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